I cannot make a report, but I will introduce one question which is of great interest to everyone. It's about the party crisis that has broken out while the party is in power.

For all who follow the literature, the polemics which were carried on in the "Rabochey p[uti]2 and my attacks against Kam[enev] and Zin[oviev]3 are not new. In "The Cause of the People "4 it was said that the Bolsheviks would be afraid to take power. This made me take up the pen to show all the incompetence and bottomless stupidity of the socialist-revolutionaries ("Will [the Bolsheviks] retain state power?")5. The question was raised at the session[s] about the speech6. I was afraid of opportunists on the part of the intern[ationalists]-unionists, but this dissipated, and our party[s] members did not agree.

This made me extremely sad. The question[s] of an uprising has long been raised, and I have never refused, even in spite of the disagreement of 3[inoviev] and Kam[enev]. Since it is known that an uprising is necessary and inevitable, but the comrades-in-arms of 3[inoviev] and Kam[amenev] began to agitate against an uprising. I began to regard them as [a]shtrekbrecher[s]. I even wrote to the Central Committee to expel them7.

I spoke out sharply in the press when Kamenev spoke in "N[ovoy] Zhizni "8. But then I kept silent about it; I wouldn't want to treat them harshly. I look at Kam[enev's] negotiations in the Central Executive Committee about an agreement with him kindly, for we are not against it in principle9.

After the socialist-revolutionaries had given up power, I realized that they1* , after Kerensky had raised resistance10. After defeating him, after the [Russian] Guards turned out to be so prepared and with such enthusiasm (it's no secret). With Moscow the matter dragged on11. Ours fell into pessimism. Moscow, they say, is being crushed, we cannot take power, etc. And then the question of an agreement arose].

The cause of the uprising is a new one, and different forces and different qualities are needed here.

In Moscow, for example, there were many such cases where Junkers brutality was displayed. The shooting of captured soldiers, etc.12 The Junkers, the sons of the bourgeoisie, realized that with the power of the people the power of the bourgeoisie ends. As early as at the conference we outlined a number of measures, a program and the seizure of banks, etc.13

The B[olsheviks] were often too good-natured. And if the B[urgeoisie] had been victorious, it would have done the same in '48 and '71.14 Who thought that we would not meet the sabotage of the B[urgeoisie]? This is clear to an infant. And we have to arrest directors, and their short-term arrests have had very good results.

This does not surprise me, I know that they are not capable of fighting, they have been kept in warm places. In Paris they were guillotined, and we will deprive them of their cards, those who do not receive from the trade unions that they have done their duty.

And at such a moment, when we are in power - there is a split. Zin[oviev] and K[amenev] say that we will not seize power and so on. I am not able to listen calmly to these arguments of treason.

What do they want? To start a stabbing? Only the proletariat can lead the country. And the agreement? We will be sympathized with by the s[ocialists]-r[evolutionaries] if Dan will sympathize, and Dan is b[urgeoisie]. Fairy tale - kids will slaughter[t], etc.

I can't even talk about it seriously. Trotsky said long ago that unification[is] impossible. Trotsky realized this and since then there has been no better b[olshevik].

3[Inoviev] says that we are not the Sov[eet] government, we are Bolsheviks alone. The Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks have left, but not through our fault.

We have been elected by the sov[eet]s[congress]15. This is a new organization, those who want to fight go into it. It is not the people, but the vanguard, which is followed by the masses. We go with the masses, active, not tired. To give up the revolt is to roll back to the masses who are tired, and we go with the avang[ard]. The Soviets define themselves. The Soviets are the vanguard of the proletarian masses. There are no friend[s] - the whole bourge[uazia], etc. Now we are offered to marry] the city council - this is absurd.

We are told that we want to introduce socialism - this is absurd. We don't want to do peasant socialism. When we are told that we must stop[ing] - it is impossible. Who says that we are not the Soviet government? What are we? We can't unite with the Duma. If they were to offer us an agreement with Rumcher[odom]16, with Vikzhel17 and so on, we would not be able to stop. This is bargaining. Maybe we could still agree with Kaledin, and then they would put sticks in our wheels. This is miserable bargaining, not Soviet power. At the conference it is necessary to put the question just so, if we have given a piece of power to the Soviets, and it is only so, 99% of the workers are for us.

If there be a split, let it be. If there is a majority, take power in the Central [Central] Executive Committee and act, and we will go to the sailors.

We are in power. The bourge[uazia] is beginning to come to the point where they must be "swallowed." Do not go to the "New Life", they are some unprincipled slugs: with us, then with the Mensheviks. They say that we alone will not be able to hold the power, etc. But we are not alone2*. The whole of Europe is before us. We must begin. Now only social[ialist] revolt. All these disagreements, doubts are absurd.

When I said: we will fight with bread cards, the faces of the soldiers become animated. They tell us that the soldiers are incapable. But we are told by the [soldiers] that they have not seen such enthusiasm [before].

Only we will create such [such] rev[olutionary] enthusiasm, only we are capable of fighting, and so forth. And the Mensheviks? They won't follow them. At the forthcoming conference it is necessary to raise the question of the further socialist revolt. Kaledin is in front of us, we have not yet won.

When we are told that "there is no power".

When it is necessary for us to arrest, we will. But if they tell us: terror, etc., we will. - diktat[hurrah] of the proletar[iat]. To arrest Vikzhel - I understand that. When they were shouting about arrests, a Tver muzhik came and said: "arrest them all. "18 That's what I understand. He understands what the dictatorship of the proletariat is.

Without agreement!

Fond 2, op. 1, d. 25833, fol. 11-14 - secretarial record

1* Further one word could not be deciphered, it is clearly written only: "po...nom".

2* Further in the document there is a gap, apparently, it was left for later insertion of the missing entry

1In 1927, the Leningrad Istpart published a collection "The First Legal Petersburg Committee of the Bolsheviks in 1917", in which the minutes of the meetings of the Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP(b) for 1917 were published, but the minutes of November 1 (14), 1917 were not included in the publication. In the preface, the editor of the collection P. Kudelli explains this by the poor recording of the speeches. The argument is not very convincing, since almost all the minutes are in the same condition.

Lenin's speech at this meeting was first published in the "Opposition Bulletin" No. 7, pp. 31-37, published, apparently, in November-December 1929. Secondly - in the book by L.D.Trotsky "Stalin's School of Falsifications" (Berlin, 1932; see the edition - M., 1990, pp. 117-121). Trotsky claimed that this document was not published in the USSR because it contained Lenin's positive assessment of his position in October 1917.

The meeting of the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP(b) on November 1 (14) began at about 8 p.m., and one question was put up for discussion - the entry of representatives of the Mensheviks and SRs into the Soviet government.

2 "Rabochy Put" - a daily newspaper, the central organ of the RSDLP(b), published in Petrograd from September 3 (16) to October 26 (November 8), 1917, instead of the closed newspaper "Pravda".

3V.I.Lenin is referring to his speeches against G.E.Zinoviev and L.B.Kamenev, who disagreed with the decisions of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) of October 10 (23) and 16 (29), 1917, on the preparation of an armed uprising.

In defense of this decision in the newspaper "Rabochy Put" Nos. 40, 41, 42 of October 19, 20, 21 (November 1, 2, 3), 1917, Lenin's letter of October 17 (30), 1917 was printed. "To the Comrades" (see: Lenin V.I. Complete Collected Works, vol. 34, pp. 398-418).

4 "The Cause of the People" was a daily newspaper of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, published in Petrograd from March 1917 to June 1918. Lenin is referring to an advanced article in No. 160, September 21, 1917.

5V.I. Lenin is referring to his article "Will the Bolsheviks Retain State Power?" (see: Lenin V.I. Complete Collected Works, vol. 34, pp. 290- 339).

6V.I.Lenin is referring to the meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) of October 10 (23), 1917, at which he made a report on the current situation and his resolution on armed insurrection was adopted (see: Lenin V.I. Complete Works, vol. 34, pp. 391-393). The next day L.B. Kamenev and G.E. Zinoviev sent their letter "To the Current Moment" to the Central Committee protesting against the resolution adopted by the Central Committee (see: Minutes of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b). August 1917 - February 1918. M., 1958, pp. 86-92).

7Referring to Lenin's letter to the members of the Bolshevik Party of October 18 (31), 1917, and his letter to the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) of October 19 (November 1), 1917 (see: Lenin V.I. Complete Works, vol. 34, pp. 419-427).

8The newspaper "Novaya Zhizn" No. 156 of October 18 (31), 1917, published a note "Y. Kamenev on 'Speech'", which reported L. B. Kamenev's statement against armed insurrection (see: Minutes of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b)..., pp. 115-116).

"Novaya Zhizn" - a daily newspaper of the Menshevik-Internationalists, published from April 18 (May 1) to July 2 (15), 1917, it was replaced by a newspaper called "Svobodnaya Rossiya" from September 8 (21), 1917.

9V.I.Lenin speaks of the inclusion of L.B.Kamenev in the VTsIK commission (Kamenev, G.Y.Sokolnikov and D.B.Ryazanov) appointed to participate in the meeting convened by Vikzhel (see also note 17) together with representatives of political parties on the composition of the government. Vikzhel's statement sent to the VTsIK argued that a government based on one party "cannot meet recognition and support throughout the country" ("Izvestiya VTsIK and Petrograd Soviet" No. 212, October 31 (November 13), 1917). On November 1 (14) the VTsIK heard the delegation's report on the negotiations and adopted a resolution on the terms of agreement with other parties (see: Decrees of Soviet Power. Vol. 1. M., 1957, p. 33). On the same day the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) condemned the position of the delegation, the majority of the Central Committee members were in favor of terminating the negotiations on coalition power (see: Minutes of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b)..., pp. 124-130).

Negotiations continued with the Left SRs and ended on November 17 (30) with their entry into the Council of People's Commissars.

10 A.F.Kerensky from October 29 (November 11), 1917 tried to gather troops and launch an attack on Petrograd, but on November 1 (14) the Cossack units of General P.N.Krasnov loyal to him were defeated. Kerensky fled from Gatchina, Krasnov and his staff were arrested.

11In Moscow the revolutionary troops won on November 2 (15), 1917.

12In the Moscow Kremlin, surrendered soldiers of the 56th Regiment and the Arsenal were shot by Junkers on October 28 (November 10), 1917.

13V.I.Lenin is referring to the resolution of the Seventh (April) Conference of the RSDLP(b) (April 24-29 (May 7-12), 1917) on the current moment (see: The CPSU in Resolutions and Decisions of Congresses, Conferences and Plenums of the Central Committee. 9th ed., vol. 1, pp. 507-509).

Banks were nationalized by the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of December 14 (27), 1917 (see: Decrees of Soviet Power. Vol. I, p. 230).

14This refers to the bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1848 and the Paris Commune of 1871 in France.

15V.I.Lenin is referring to the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, held in Petrograd on October 25-26, 1917, which proclaimed the transfer of power in the country to the Soviets. The Congress approved the decrees on peace and land and the decree on the Soviet government.

16Rumcherod - the Executive Committee of the Soviets of Soldiers', Sailors', Workers' and Peasants' Deputies of the Romanian Front, the Black Sea Fleet and the Odessa Military District - was elected at the 1st Front and Regional Congress of Soviets on May 10-27 (May 23-June 9), 1917 in Odessa. Most of its members were SRs and Mensheviks. Supported the Provisional Government. By order of the Military-Revolutionary Committee at the Stavka and chief commander N.V.Krylenko it was dissolved on December 3 (16), 1917.

17Vikzhel - All-Russian Executive Committee of Railwaymen - was created at the 1st All-Russian Constituent Congress of Railwaymen (Moscow, July 15 (28) - August 23 (September 7), 1917). The committee consisted of 14 SRs, 6 Mensheviks and 3 Bolsheviks. December 12 (25), 1917. The Extraordinary All-Russian Congress of railroad workers and foremen expressed distrust of Vikzhel and elected the All-Russian Executive Committee of Railroad Workers (Vikzhedor).

18It appears that Lenin is referring to the speech of a delegate from Tver province at a meeting of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets on October 26 (November 9), 1917: "Then a peasant of Tver province spoke and said that he had brought a low bow and greetings to the present assembly, that on behalf of his peasant electors he appealed to the assembly not to stop before arresting the entire Executive Committee of the Peasant Council, because it was not peasant representatives who were sitting there, but cadets who were not defending the people's interests but betraying them, and that their place was in prison" (Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets R. and S. D. M.-L., 1928, p. 74).